1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to sports equipment and more particularly to an improved type of archery arrow rest.
2. Prior Art
Various types of archery arrow rests have been designed and utilized. Some of the older types of arrow rests comprised horizontal shelves attached to the sidewall of the riser portion of the archery bow and extending laterally into the arrow window in the riser. Difficulties have been encountered with such arrow rests because when an arrow is shot by the bow from the rest, the arrow is likely to strike the riser sidewall and/or rest, due to archer's paradox, that is, lateral serpentine bending of the arrow when shot, and to then fly off at an angle and not hit the target.
Certain newer arrow rests have attempted to solve the foregoing problem by cradling the opposite sides of the arrow shaft between two laterally spaced horizontally extending arrow rest arms projecting forward into the arrow window at a controlled distance from the riser sidewall. In order to partially absorb the downward thrust of the arrow shaft during shooting, such rests have generally been made flexible and resilient. Those rests which employ rigid arms instead of flexible ones still provide an obstacle to the arrow when shot and cause deflection of the arrow from its desired flight path.
A further difficulty has been encountered with flexible horizontal arrow rests due to the nature of the newest arrows. In order to increase the speed of the arrow and flatten its flight path for greater accuracy in shooting, light weight carbon fiber and graphite fiber arrows have been devised, with or without hollow metal cores, and having exceptionally front tips which are of metal to increase the stability and wearability of the arrows. Accordingly, such arrows have much of the arrow weight in the front portion of the arrow, due to the above. When such an arrow is drawn on a bow for shooting from a horizontal arrow rest which is vertically depressible, the further back the arrow is drawn, the less the rest sags. Accuracy therefore varies, depending on the exact point of release of the arrow, which may vary from shot to shot. This is particularly true when the shot must be made quickly, either due to a press of time during a tournament or due to the necessity of hitting an animal target quickly before it moves out of shooting range.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved archery arrow rest which is simple, durable, adjustable and which does not allow sagging during shooting. Moreover, such rest should not interfere with the flight of the arrow so that improved shooting accuracy can be maintained.